Enrique Iglesias: Insomniac
Enrique: The good looking one
Also In The News
|
England finished their Test series against the West Indies on a high as they overcame the tourists and some tricky weather conditions to secure a comfortable seven-wicket win in the fourth Test. |  |
Wednesday, 20, Jun 2007 06:10
Polydor Records, June 18th.
In a nutshell.
Run of the mill mainstream pop with a mish mash of RnB and dance thrown in.
What's it all about?
The eighth studio album from he with the good looks and the softly crooning voice: Enrique Iglesias. It's been three years since the 32-year-old released an album; the latest effort is the result of travelling during that time between Los Angeles, Sweden and Miami writing, recording and editing.
Apparently there have been countless sleepless nights over this album as Enrique wanted it to be 100 per cent perfect. What's the result? 12 tracks in English and three in Spanish made up from a variety of pop, love ballads, RnB and dance. Whether this works is questionable but no doubt the more run-of-the-mill Enrique tracks such as Do You Know? and Somebody's Me will keep his hardcore fans happy. Although far from 100 per cent perfect, Enrique's return to the pop scene is more than welcome.
Who's it by?
Love him or hate him, there's no doubting that Enrique has been a success, selling 40 million albums and having numerous Grammys under his belt. To some he will be best known for dating beautiful women including Anna Kournikova and frolicking with them in his music videos. To others he is a master of the pop scene, creating the ballad Hero and the chart topping hits Escape and Not In Love.
The Madrid-born, Miami-raised singer admits that he spent a long time deciding what Insomniac should be like. "I guess at first I did want to consciously make a record that had a cool sound to it. But then I said to myself, 'f**k that'. I don't want to take myself too seriously. The truth is, I just want to write songs that I like."
The input on Insomniac is not just from Enrique; the singer collaborated with the producers Sean Garrett, Max Martin and Anders Bagge.
As an example.
"Maybe if I knew all the things it took to save us / I can fix the pain that bleeds inside of me / The look in your eyes don't say the same about me / I'm standing on the edge and I don't know what else to give." - Do You Know?
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Highly unlikely - Insomniac is such a mish-mash of an album the judges wouldn't know which category to lump it in. RnB? Pop? Dance? English? Spanish? They wouldn't know where to start.
So is it any good?
Insomniac is not going to set the charts alight but it will certainly keep the flame burning for hardcore Enrique fans. He spent three years on this album, but after listening to it you have to wonder what he spent all the time doing; mainstream pop like this has been churned out far quicker by other artists.
The hip-hop collaboration Push fails to hit the mark - it's one thing for popster Justin Timberlake to make to the move to RnB and hip-hop, but quite another for heartfelt crooner-Enrique, it really would have been better for him to have left the genre well alone. And the dance version of his previous hit Hero is an unpleasant shock - jazzing up one of the best unashamed love songs ever is just wrong.
But when he sticks to what he does best, it works. Do You Know is the best and most memorable track on the album and is in the same vein as his chart-topping hit Escape from 2002. Somebody's Me and Tired of Being Sorry stick to more Enrique-familiar territory - and thank God, any more RnB attempts and the stop button would bring welcome relief.
6/10
Carolyn Robertson